One author contrasts the Bible and other men's literary works by saying: "There is this great difference between the works of men and the works of God—that the same minute and searching investigation which displays the defects and imperfections of the one, brings out also the beauties of the other.

"If the most finely polished needle [made by man] ... be subjected to a microscope, many inequalities, much roughness and clumsiness, will be seen. But if the microscope be brought to bear on the flowers of the field [made by God], no such result appears. Instead of their beauty diminishing, new beauties ... are discovered ...

"The same law appears also in comparing the Word of God and the most finished productions of men. There are spots and blemishes in the most admired productions of human genius. But the more the Scriptures are searched ... the more their perfection appears; new beauties are brought into light every day; and the discoveries of science, the researches of the learned ... all alike conspire to illustrate the wonderful harmony of all the parts" (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, 1959, p. 1). GN